


burning the midnight oil

by scorpionGrass



Series: you can’t put a price on peace (of mind) [16]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997)
Genre: Gen, Planet Scar Syndrome | Geostigma, Pre-Advent Children (Compilation of FFVII)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:00:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24958759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scorpionGrass/pseuds/scorpionGrass
Summary: Yuffie finds a strange kind of solace in Cosmo Canyon, where the world is silent and the sunsets glow so brightly the shadows they cast fill the valley, swallowing it whole.
Series: you can’t put a price on peace (of mind) [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1363234
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	burning the midnight oil

The bonfire is warm, and Yuffie shuffles as close as she can get without the flames licking her skin. It had been a long journey, and getting to Cosmo Canyon had been exhausting. Cid had only been able to spare enough time to pick her up just outside Wutai proper and drop her off in the fields before heading back to Rocket Town to work on something with Barret. Yuffie had spent at least an hour retching in the fields and lying around in the soft grass before slinging her pack over her shoulder and trekking her way to Nanaki’s home.

The Cosmo Candle burns brightly and eternally, and Yuffie thinks it must be nice to have that kind of permanence. Wutai has none, save for Da Chao which gets eroded more and more as the years pass with no one to upkeep it. The night air is cool, and her back is still cold right up until Nanaki comes up to rest behind her, curling around her waist.

“You need a cloak,” he says in greeting.

“Yeah, yeah,” she says, leaning back into him and his soft fur. “Miss me?”

“I suppose,” he says, and Yuffie laughs.

“Miss your gramps?”

Nanaki hums, settling his snout over his paws. “Yes,” he says. “I miss him, so I visit often. He told me to explore the world, beyond the Canyon and the confines of Shin-Ra’s labs, but I can’t help but always find my way back.”

“I don’t blame you.” Yuffie tilts her head back, savouring the feeling of the warm fire and cool breeze and Nanaki’s fur tickling her back, smiling when she can see every star in the night sky framed by red cliffs. “Cosmo Canyon is beautiful.”

They sit a while longer until there’s nothing but cicadas chirping in the distance. The canyon is filled with fierce reds and deep blues where the light hits, and it reminds Yuffie of the traditional watercolour paintings back in Wutai, where the shadows are always cast in the inkiest black.

Yuffie shivers as a breeze passes them. “Can I stay with you for a while?”

“As long as you need.”

“Thanks, Red.”

~

The children in Wutai are suffering. A handful of the adults and elders are too, but Yuffie hardly has it in her to care about the people who made Wutai a tourist trap in the first place. It’s the future she’s worried about, and the generation that will help her build it.

But black ichor stains their skin, bursting through their pores like squid ink when their fevers act up. They’re in pain, and none of the elders have any idea what it is. There is no cure for it and the Wutian records say nothing about a black plague. The doctors have tried everything from potions and ethers to herbal compresses and leeches, but nothing eases the pain.

They’ve lost so many already.

“Nanaki?”

He sleeps at the foot of the bed, curled up and relaxed over Yuffie’s feet, but his ears twitch at the sound of his name.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Of course,” he says, blinking the sleep from his good eye as he stretches back onto his hind legs.

Yuffie feels a smile tug at her lips despite everything, because Nanaki really is like a cute, knowledgeable, wise pet. “Do you think… there’s a materia out there that can cure anything?”

“Hmm, it’s possible,” Nanaki says. The candlelight flickers, casting shadows about the room for a moment before settling back. “After all, our cure materia has the power to raise the injured from most fatal wounds and ailments. Not all, of course, but there are a number of impressive records of just how far the spells in a cure can go.”

“I guess so, but those… haven’t exactly worked,” Yuffie admits, thinking about every spell she was able to coax out of a mastered Cure materia. Even Esuna didn’t do anything but work as pain relief for a couple of hours.

“You speak of the stigma.”

Yuffie’s nose scrunches up. “Is that what they’re calling it?”

“Yes. Geostigma,” Nanaki says, “the black plague that mottles the skin. According to reports from Edge, anyway. Reeve has asked for my expertise on the matter since he believes it’s connected to the appearance of the Lifestream, but…”

They both fall into silence, and Yuffie remembers the old, wrinkled but jolly face of Bugenhagen. She frowns. “What else does it say in those reports?”

“That it’s completely unprecedented, never seen before this point in all of history. Some think that looking to the recent past will help find the answers, what changed in the past few years.”

“Meteor, Holy, and the Lifestream happened. We stopped using mako energy.”

“Yes, Reeve also mentioned those, but I think it might be deeper than that.” Nanaki looks up through the skylight, at the stars beyond, in thought. “I just don’t know what it could be.”

Yuffie hugs her knees to her chest and pouts. “Just a hunch then.”

“Unfortunately.”

~

Yuffie spends her time in Cosmo Canyon holed up in Bugenhagen’s study reading everything she possibly can about the Lifestream, learning about materia creation and the distilling process that Shin-Ra used to use in their Reactors. She prods Nanaki about the Planet, about cure materia properties, about the experimental potions that they sell at the shop on ground level. She reads and rereads Reeve’s reports from WRO HQ.

A week later, she still hasn’t found any satisfying answers. Neither has Nanaki.

He finds her sprawled on the floor of Bugenhagen’s planetarium on the seventh day, staring up at the holographic projections programmed to replicate how the Planet had come to be, following it as accurately through simulation as possible, right up until Meteor. Yuffie rewinds it, watching the Lifestream draw back into the planet, then plays it again. The Lifestream floods Midgar as Meteor crashes through the atmosphere.

“Hungry?” Nanaki asks, snapping her out of her reverie. “You look like you need a break.”

Yuffie rolls her head to the side to look at him. “Can we eat here? Are we allowed?”

Nanaki doesn’t see why not.

It doesn’t take long for them to return to the planetarium, Yuffie holding two bowls of food in her arms. She sets one down for Nanaki before sitting cross-legged on the floor and restarting the simulation.

“The Lifestream is the memory of everything and everyone who lived on the Planet, right?” Yuffie says, idly poking at her bowl of rice and curry. “So. What if it got overwhelmed by the number of deaths that occurred when Meteor hit? A mass collective of trauma that hit the Lifestream in one go? Would that make it sick?”

Nanaki pauses to look up at the slowed-down projection, watching Meteor strike and the Lifestream burst out of the Planet. “That’s a thought. You should contact Reeve and let him know.”

“That old man?” Yuffie rolls her eyes, snapping her chopsticks together impatiently. “What’s he gonna do? Throw paperwork at it? How can anyone heal the Planet from PTSD? It’s not like we can give it counselling. We can’t  _ talk  _ to the Planet--”

She cuts herself off, and Nanaki can see her eyes get glassy. He stays quiet, knowing the only answer to that lies within a comrade long gone. They’re quiet for the rest of their meal, and when they’re done Yuffie offers to take their dishes back to the pub, skipping away like nothing is wrong and everything is okay.

Nanaki knows it’s not.

~

Yuffie leaves the next day, promising to visit soon as Nanaki accompanies her out of the canyons and into the fields where the Highwind could safely land. Her smile is twice as bright, but Nanaki senses her fear. Somehow, he believes it’s not about her motion sickness.

“What will you do once you’re back in Wutai?” Nanaki asks.

She avoids his gaze, staring far into the distance as if searching out the Highwind’s silhouette amongst the clouds. “What can I do?” she asks. “There’s no cure. I’ll just have to yell at Reeve to work faster!”

“That’s one way to get things done.”

Yuffie grins. “I’ll visit again. Maybe with all the terraforming after the Lifestream hit, the Planet came up with some new materia? We should look for it.”

Nanaki nods. “There’s no harm in doing what we can. If there’s something out there, I’m sure we can sniff it out.”

They continue to chat idly, and Nanaki watches as she boards the Highwind. Cid waves from the deck, and they’re off just as quickly. Yuffie back to Wutai, Cid back to whatever project he’s got his hands in. He wonders for a moment when Yuffie will have the chance to escape her duties a while longer just to search for an antidote that doesn’t exist. Not yet, anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> I was rereading parts of On The Way To A Smile and hearing about Yuffie and Nanaki camping together as they trek around the planet trying to find new materia to cure Geostigma got me all "wow cute..." so this happened. Hope you enjoyed <3


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